The Pacific men's basketball team's first foray into the West Coast Conference Tournament will be a rubber match with Santa Clara.

The No. 8 Tigers (15-14, 6-12 WCC) will tip off against the No. 9 Broncos (13-18, 6-12) at 8:30 p.m. today at Orleans Arena with the winner moving on to face top-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday. The game will air live on BYUtv after No. 7 Portland faces No. 10 Loyola Marymount at 6 p.m.

The Tigers and Broncos split their season series with Pacific winning 80-68 at home on Jan. 11 and the Broncos avenging the loss 70-55 on Feb. 20.

Coach Ron Verlin said the tournament presents an opportunity for the Tigers to move past their rough initial season in the WCC.

"What's done is done, now it's time for us to let it all go for 40 minutes," Verlin said. "We have to play with great intensity because it's do or die and I've been preaching that this week. We have to be fearless and not hold anything back."

Verlin described Santa Clara as being guard-based with Brandon Clark (17 points per game), Jared Brownridge (16.9) and Evan Roquemore (10.4) leading the way, and said his backcourt rotation of Andrew Bock, Sama Taku and T.J. Wallace would have to meet that challenge for the Tigers to win.

Bock, who had 16 points in Pacific's win over the Broncos and seven in the loss, said the biggest difference in the games was how the Tigers shot the ball. Pacific made 53.8 percent of its attempts in the first game and 32 percent in the loss.

"We didn't score well enough to win the second game, so we have to be able to get in the lane and then make some shots," Bock said. "We can't control if the ball is going to go in, so we have to make sure we're executing our defense, too."

Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating said it will come down to which team executes better.

"I don't expect any deviation from either of us," Keating said. "There's not much you can hide from somebody when you're playing them for a third time."

Senior forward Tony Gill said the Broncos like to use a lot of screens to loosen up their guards, so guarding the Broncos will be a true team effort.

"We have to communicate on defense and be ready to help each other," Gill said. "We have the size advantage, so we have to win the battle in the paint, especially rebounding."